Talk About a Home-Court Advantage

Blue coat costs Tar Heel fan a great seat at UVA game

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - MARCH 23: Deon Thompson #21 of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels defends the shot Gabe Pruitt #34 of the University of Southern California Trojans during the NCAA Men's East Regional Semifinal at Continental Airlines Arena on March 23, 2007 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

One Tar Heel fan was relocated from his seat right behind the Cavaliers’ bench, and he said it was after he was spotted wearing Carolina blue.

The fan, Greg Demery, bought the ticket from a scalper, according to NewsObserver.com. The Arlington, Va., man realized how fantastic the ticket was when he got to his seat inside John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. He didn’t realize, however, where the scalper had gotten that ticket in the first place.

It turns out it came from a UVA athletic department staffer, who’d given the ticket to a friend; that friend then sold the ticket to a scalper.

Security spotted Demery’s Tar Heel blue coat and probably figured that he didn’t work for the University of Virginia. He wasn’t kicked out of the arena. Instead, he was “relocated” to a seat about 17 rows higher.

“I understood he didn’t know the rules before he purchased that ticket, which is why I wanted to find as good a ticket for him as I could,” UVA associate athletic director Jason Baumantold the The Dagger, a Yahoo! Sports blog. “I think it’s the right approach to those seats, I think I handled it in a professional manner, and I think I was respectful of him, but I also think the result was very fair.”